It would also have been our duty to have informed you that we were ready
to negotiate with you upon all such questions as are necessarily raised
by the adoption of this ordinance, and that we were prepared to enter
upon this negotiation with the earnest desire to avoid all unnecessary
and hostile collision, and so to inaugurate our new relations as to
secure mutual respect, general advantage, and a future of good-will and
harmony beneficial to all the parties concerned.
But the events of the last twenty-four hours render such an assurance
impossible. We came here the representatives of an authority which
could, at any time within the past sixty days, have taken possession of
the forts in Charleston Harbor, but which, upon pledges given in a
manner that, we can not doubt, determined to trust to your honor rather
than to its own power. Since our arrival here an officer of the United
States, acting, as we are assured, not only without but against your
orders, has dismantled one fort and occupied another, thus altering, to
a most important extent, the condition of affairs under which we came.
Until these circumstances are explained in a manner which relieves us of
all doubt as to the spirit in which these negotiations shall be
conducted, we are forced to suspend all discussion as to any
arrangements by which our mutual interests might be amicably adjusted.
And, in conclusion, we would urge upon you the immediate withdrawal of
the troops from the harbor of Charleston.
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